Boonah residents want police on scene faster

Geoff has been working for the QT since August 2011 covering Ipswich’s rural areas. He started working for APN in January 2010 with the Chinchilla News in western Queensland after growing up on a grain farm. Geoff spends his time out of work watching far too much sport following the Reds, the Broncos and various American teams.

BOONAH residents are calling for more policing with calls to local stations being transferred to Ipswich as early as noon some days.

Calls to the Boonah police station are automatically diverted to the Ipswich police station after 3.30pm on Monday through to Friday, while in Kalbar calls are diverted from 4pm Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays and from noon on Friday.

In an account given to the Queensland Times, one Boonah resident called the police in hope of reaching the Boonah police station in the early evening, but the call was directed to Ipswich.

The Boonah woman reported a fight had broken out at a house on her street and a child knocked on her door asking her to call police.

However, she said the police took close to an hour to arrive.

"I called triple-0 when the boy first asked me, then I went back to what I was doing," she said.

"Then, about half an hour later, I heard more noise coming from the street and I thought 'surely the police are there by now.' But they weren't.

"So I called the Boonah station directly and it directed me straight to Ipswich.

"They told me the police were still on their way and were coming as fast as they could."

The woman, who asked to remain anonymous, said other locals had complained of similar waits after calling triple-0.

"Heaps of other people have had the same problem," she said.

"This was an emergency call, why do we have to wait half an hour in an emergency?

"The police should be there when you need them."

Police union president Ian Leavers said the Fassifern Valley was in need of extra resources.

Mr Leavers said the Kalbar station was entirely run by a single officer after the front counter worker accepted a redundancy payout more than 12 months ago.

"There is always someone on call in Boonah," he said.

"Boonah is a four-man station, but unfortunately they can't be everywhere at once with so few officers."

The Queensland Police Service did not respond to the Queensland Times' request for comment yesterday.